Gluten-Free Chicken Strips and Hush Puppies

I adore a good fry-up. And there isn’t much better than chicken strips and Hush Puppies! Chicken was recently on sale at one of the local supermarkets so I picked up a few 3 pound packs of the breast tenders. These make the best chicken “planks.”

Typically I soak these in buttermilk but I didn’t have any on hand. I reached for my apple cider vinegar (added to milk makes a nice chicken soak) but drat! I was out of that as well. Looking at soaking in plain milk (better than nothing) I opened the frig and found a container of ranch dip made with sour cream. Perfect! I mixed this with some milk and poured it over the chicken and let that soak for an hour or so.

While those soaked, I made some doughnut holes. I added a bit of milk to the batter to create a softer doughnut. Once they’d cooled off, helpful hubby rolled them around in the maple glaze I’d made (3 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup maple flavoring (Davinci syrup) and enough milk to make a glaze that is similar in consistency to pancake batter). What a great guy he is – he stood there for 20 minutes rolling each doughnut hole and when he was done, he rolled them a second time so the glaze was nice and thick. Let them sit on the cooling rack so they’d dry and then they were ready.

maple glazed doughnut holes

Once the doughnuts were done, it was on to the Hush Puppies. These fry up pretty quickly – just 3 minutes or so per batch. Delicious served with ketchup.

These kept toasty warm in the oven while I worked on the chicken strips. There were 10 people in total here – my parents, 2 of my sisters and their related child/husband, our son’s friend and our little family (myself, handsome hubby, and our 16 yo son) – so I made quite a few strips. Actually, 5 pounds worth! This took the better part of an hour as my fryer only does 12 strips at a time, each batch taking 5-7 minutes.

Once everything was done, they were placed with tender loving care onto a large serving platter and then the feeding frenzy began.

All food was made with gluten-free mixes from Glutenada. Just a few cups of the Fry Mix coated the 5+ pounds of chicken and the result was a tender, crispy plank. Perfect for dipping into BBQ sauce or honey mustard. Yummers!

chicken strips closeup

maple glazed doughnut holes closeup

The maple glazed doughnut holes were soft, moist, and beyond delicious. One thing I’ve missed since being gluten-free is a scrumptious maple bar. These were just what my craving needed. The perfect maple bar fix. Yum!